Hating From the Word Go!

 

Right from the start let us set the record straight, the Republicans who refused publically to attend the Inauguration of Barack Obama were wrong to make it public, especially if they made a big show of such in the mainstream media, social media, alternative media and elsewhere. The current identical actions by those boycotting the Inauguration of Donald Trump are equally wrong. The big difference is the mainstream media and their joyous celebration of the boycotts being performed as a grand show now and the critical coverage they gave such in 2008. I will grant everybody a miniscule but infinitely important morsel of credit; at least nobody tried to make a mockery of the President elect and Vice President elect laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, well, except the most petty. Such mockery would have been so below the belt and uncouth beyond measure and as unacceptable as anything possible. Do not get me wrong, I respect these people’s right to do exactly what they are committing to do. My admonition goes to those from his party, the Republicans, the “Never Trump” Republicans, the Republicans who used every piece of rumor, dirt, suspicion of evil deeds and anything found against Trump even to repeating charges made by the Democrats amplifying their voices, the Republicans who used everything in the Republican National Committee computers such that the Russians found nothing new there to throw at Trump as they found with Hillary Clinton. News to everybody, News Flash, important news; Donald Trump is President and the United States is really in crisis with a government far too huge and cumbersome which is the exact swamp which needs draining. The problem which Trump will run up against first is that he cannot under the law just tell people in government, “You’re Fired,” and make it stick because the rules forbid exactly that. That is the reality, the swamp is protected by law and Trump and his administration will need to find some way of removing the dead wood sitting smug and comfortable pretending nothing can touch them. Well, there are other means of forcing one to depart the government such as making their working conditions too demanding and uncomforting. Force them to perform acts under their definition of office which are against their very principles and finally simply transfer them somewhere that does not permit family to also be allowed and repeat transfers until they decide it really is not worth the aggravation just to oppose the President. Should the President require somebody with experience and knowledge on how to make a workplace support only that which is the President’s promises, we are available.

 

One ideal example is Columbia Professor of Modern Arab Studies Rashid Khalidi who fears that these people supporting Israel, “And unfortunately, these people infest the Trump transition team, these people are going to infest our government as of January 20.” Professor Khalidi is an Islamic Arab who believes that all of Israel is occupied and that Jews are not entitled to any “Arab lands” and the Zionists are colonizers. Needless to understand is that Professor Khalidi is an atypical Arab spokesperson, American born, pro-Palestinian, reputed but denied being a PLO spokesperson in Beirut in the 1970’s and 1980’s, when Israel and the US considered the group a terrorist organization (see photo below). Obviously Professor Khalidi is among those who are less than exuberant about the new day with President Trump in the White House. Professor Khalidi was welcome at the White House during President Obama’s administration. He was hopeful that President Obama would hinder and possibly lead to the destruction of the Jewish State. The end of Israel and the imposition of Islam on the world making the world safe for the Arab people throughout all the continents, well, possibly except Antarctica as it might be just slightly too chilly during the winter that close to the South Pole. If one has surveyed the lands which were conquered by the Arabs between 620 and 750 and the indigenous peoples in these areas which remain under Arab rule, they would notice they have become an almost unnoticeable minority. The area of Egypt had a large population of Coptic Christians and a very active Jewish society before 625 and by the year 1700 the Jewish population was disappearing and the Christians were relegated to small enclaves and today there is no Jewish community and the Coptic Christians are a threatened group who, if we had lists of endangered human societies, the Coptic Christians would be amongst those on the list.

 

Columbia Professor of Modern Arab Studies Rashid Khalidi

 

Let us return back to the new American President, Donald Trump. If one were to simply search here at BTC entering with quotes “Trump” “failure” one would find this has been a repeated subject as it is rampant and amplified by the mainstream media making it appear to be a pandemic when actually it is only three to four times the size from the people equally infuriated with President Obama being elected and being also equally boisterous. One of our favorites and we think almost amusing was It’s In, Trump’s Failed Presidency. Now that the inauguration is history and we are officially in the start of what will be those fateful first one-hundred days of the Trump Presidency, it is going to be interesting to see what the mainstream media makes of his successes and failures. It can be bet that what they term as a disaster or really terrible for the nation and the world will be the exact items where President Trump delivers upon his campaign promises. One item which will be interesting to read will be how as President Trump, providing the Republican congress actually work with him and not join those opposing everything he does, actually delivers on lowering taxes for the majority of people, deregulates businesses following through on what small businesses and others have noted are worthless busywork regulations and other things which would be approved by many people providing they were presented with these actions as theoretical and not attached to any political party or special interests. What many people do not understand and something I found out about as my Mother ended up working at home filling in forms and checking everything at least twice as errors on these forms were criminally punishable by long prison terms. Imagine having dozens of regulations each month with each averaging two pages of forms all requiring a grasp of basic math, some accounting, understanding poorly and distressfully worded instructions with vague meanings (yes, potentially double meanings) and deadlines for filing and this was way back in ancient history, the 1960’s to the 1980’s just to keep my Father’s tailor shop which employed himself, assistance from my mother and more often than not one tailor as an employee. Now imagine a plumber who has a small one city plumbing service and contracting company with twenty or thirty plumbers and fifteen trucks. Such a small company would require at least one person if not more to handle the required paperwork spawned by regulations. Ever wonder what happened to the neighborhood doctor’s office? When I was a kid, yes, I know I still act like one, we had a lady doctor who we could get treatment and she would assist in cover stories on how we injured ourselves, even when she saw you break your arm car surfing. She closed up the office in her house and joined three other doctors in a clinic which had a receptionist and two people who handled billing and regulation forms and they were considering hiring another. Take a look at the local school and remember back to your school days and there is little comparison if you are over thirty. There are three times the councilors, more than one principal, numerous vice principles (my high school of almost 4500 students had two), and an EEOC advisor (at least one), and a near uncountable number of secretaries spread around the various offices, and positions we never even heard of back in the day all because there are numerous requirements that the schools must fulfill, many having to do with sex education, equal opportunity for students, special education programs, physical education requirements and more and more federally imposed programs which the schools must document that every last one of these additional educational requirements are provided for the students or covered by teachers even to the point of students having to document receiving some required courses. None of these courses have anything to do with reading, writing, arithmetic, math, history, civics or any other educational subject but are usually more along the line of indoctrination.

 

So as Trump gets rid of regulations we will hear how Trump is releasing the polluters to destroy the air and water, killing endangered animals, allowing for price gouging, releasing restraints on bad things, vague bad things which will be left undefined other than they were bad things being loosed on the people. Imagine the productivity that could be increased if the numbers of regulations and required documentations by businesses. What could be wrong with that? Well, it will allow the people who own these businesses to enjoy larger profits, you know, allowing the rich to get richer. Further, the screams of his making certain jobs no longer necessary are simply outlandish. I doubt Donald Trump could ever get rid of so many regulations and other demands from government to cause widespread unemployment. Honestly, if President Trump can force the revocation of sufficient regulations and required documentation which would require also reducing state regulatory agencies which were initially brought into being by the Federal Government and many even financed initially by the Federal Government and later were just unloaded onto the states. Such a present to the American people would be unprecedented and unbelievably liberating freeing businesses and beyond but the media and special interests would howl and declare foul because they depend on these regulations to enforce their will on the hapless public. So what might result in the most voluminous in quantity and levels of sound could also be the greatest favor President Trump could give the people, regulation depletion allowing people to act with less tethers and restrictions or unnecessary paperwork all because the simple presumed fact that if Trump does something, then it must necessarily be an evil thing and must be denounced. I can hardly wait to hear the squealing from the mainstream media at every turn as President Trump and his administration move forward. The first circus we are already witnessing, the Senate hearings and approval of his Cabinet and other appointments requiring Senate affirmation. Allow us to give you a simple and different way of viewing Trump’s appointments, the Cabinet appointees are not supposed to necessarily be experts in whatever field of their administration, they are to be managers who know how to listen to experts, have an ability to understand even complicated explanations, manage people and use their skills, know how to balance those who work with them and setting up the administrative structure to best advantage to produce the most efficient results. Imagine an efficient government department, any one of them, just imagine. The problem is it would be difficult because doing so would make so many government employees superfluous and imagine how the media would howl if, by fiat, the government let one third of their employees go and have to find real jobs. The screaming would be that President Trump was causing massive unemployment because where would these government employees find work with their skills? We would be led to believe that government employees are unacceptable as employees in the real world, imagine that. Could that be true or is that simply fear mongering, but then again, we are talking about people screaming whose deepest skill is warning of catastrophic disasters should their warnings not be heeded. Oh, by the way, they are, more often than not, simply wrong. So, let the games begin.

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

As the Pacific Far East Crumbles Away

 

Eight years of steering the United States away from even the slightest whiff of conflict or controversy leaving virtually every former ally stuck out in the wind swept stormy seas of fate have started to leave some palpable damage along the Asian Pacific Rim. These damages may only last until the few weeks after the next Presidential Inauguration or may be cemented with more to follow; it all depends on the coming, and it can’t come too soon, American Elections. The slow tear between Washington and Manila may have just torn well past the turning point as the State Department may decide to hold on an agreed arms shipment for the Philippine Police because a single Senator, Benjamin Louis “Ben” Cardin, a Democrat from Maryland, informed them he would block such a request. It seems unusual for an already approved arms deal would be held, maybe cancelled, because a single Senator raised his displeasure unless his displeasure was requested from a higher source who preferred hiding in the shadows this close to the election. No reason to risk the Philippine and other related votes in what might be a closer election than the media has painted. The reason, apparently, for Senator Cardin demanding the weapons be withheld was due to the violent manner in which the Philippine authorities are carrying out their resolute and determined crackdown on the drug lords and their criminal enterprises. The claim is that the Philippine government is using extrajudicial killings against the drug gangs because obviously there is little chance the drug gangs might be resisting the efforts to close their operations down. It is interesting to note that extrajudicial killings is exactly the same charge made by leftist Europeans, leftist Americans and the Arab lobby to throw at Israel whenever a terrorist is killed instead of coddled like a harmless puppy.

 

In nearby Malaysia, Premier Najib Razak also had some suggestions for Washington, though he directed them at the West in general referring to the former colonial powers when he cautioned, “It is not for them to lecture nations they once exploited on their internal affairs.” He was referring to the July lawsuits filed by the United States Justice Department implicating the Premier in a money-laundering scandal referencing more than three and a half billion dollars which were allegedly misappropriated. The Justice Department charges could not have anything to do with Najib is looking to strengthen ties with China and his recent six-day visit to Beijing. The United States State Department cannot be overly happy as Premier Razak’s China visit followed on the heels of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s visit. Not to worry folks, it’s all part of fundamental change President Obama promised in his October 30, 2008, speech where he stated, “We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.” We would say job well done except that the entire job is not near finished. Yes, the news from the Far East, particularly the Philippines and Malaysia, but many allies of the United States have held silently strong knowing, or at least hoping and praying, that the United States would return to its former policies and things returning to previous normal. The four year hopes died hard and the eight year prayers will be determined within the coming five days even if there are states making recounts.

 

Malaysia Philippines and Indonesia

 

There is a theory that no matter the results of the Presidential Election there is one coming end of term surprise from the White House, a surprise President Obama wants the visceral satisfaction of performing personally. This is one that is so personal that President Obama may even take a vacation and visit Turtle Bay and the United Nations in order to call a Special Session of the Security Council to hear a proposal to solve what he has determined is tantamount to the root of all problems in the Middle East if not the world, solar system, galaxy or potentially the entirety of the Universe and all creation, Israel and the formation of an Arab State for the ‘Palestinians’ in Judea and Samaria with East Jerusalem as its Capital City. President Obama would be sure to relate how the recent UNESCO decision which removed all Jewish and Christian connection to the Temple Mount or the Old City of Jerusalem, which is most of East Jerusalem, and that it is solely a Muslim Holy Site thus would serve as a natural capital for a new Islamic Palestinian nation. This would be his argument along with the seeming international itch to take away a fair sized additional chunk of the lands originally promised for the Jewish State and form yet another doomed to fail Arab Muslim State reneging yet again making a mockery of international treaties. The only surprise would be such a move being vetoed by one of the other four permanent members of the Security Council; Britain, France, China or Russia. Is such likely? In a word, “Yes.” As to which one, that remains to be seen. Our guess has three in the following order least to most likely, China, Britain, or Russia.

 

That leaves a single pair of questions. One is whether nations which have started to distance themselves from the United States could be gathered back to the warm bosom of Washington and all the wondrous prizes that includes? Should the next President and advisors in the administration return to a more traditional set of policies, then time will reset most relations. Some of those who have moved away or distanced such as the above mentioned Malaysia and Philippines and includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan and an additional small selection largely in Eastern Europe will move further from United States orbit unless concerted and deliberate efforts are expended. Even then the chances of returning all will prove near impossible. Nations such as Iraq and Egypt may be lost for the foreseeable future as Russia and China pick up influence. Still. The majority of estranged nations would gladly return given the slightest of efforts. That is the good and the bad side, but there is a worse possibility.

 

What could be worse than losing as many as a half dozen or potentially more lost due to the changes made during President Obama’s Administrations? Well, the continuation of this path which is and always was an idea which found favor in the State Department no matter the President and their policy preferences. Many Presidents since some time after World War I and the infestation of Progressive, Leftist anti-American policies siding with virtually every enemy of the United States changing hands while the highest levels nurture whatever opposing force of the moment that faces the United States with the chain simply altering as the leadership is always passed to those supporting the subversion. These State Department employees are Civil Service workers who are protected by Civil Service rules and very strong unions, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) or the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE). There have been instances where these unions have been suspected on working on campaigns, something quite unethical if not illegal. Should the advisors from the State Department continue in their privileged positions for setting foreign policy, then the current damage will only come closer to becoming permanent and the United States losing her position as leader of the free world. There are those who are claiming that continuing the current policies will lead to the death of the free world. Our comment is to say not so fast. There are places where freedom is still strong and others where freedom is slowly growing. Will there be a terrible and rough period? There are always such, the areas affected simply change with time. Hope should never be lost as cycles are a constant and things constantly change and that is unavoidable. As for what level of hope one should hold? Wait just a bit and we will get back to you on that.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Foundations of Pay to Play

 

The Clinton Foundation, or should we call it the Clinton’s Fundnation, where donations of varying sizes were deposited often in direct correlation to the length of time they were granted with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Well, not all the visits with Secretary of State Clinton were linked to contributions to the Clinton Foundation; some were linked to very impressive payments for speeches by one former President William Jefferson Clinton. Of course we are told that there is no smoking gun or definitive proof or actual links, well, provable links. It is remarkable the degree to which far too many highly placed law enforcement agencies and individuals voluntarily develop tunnel vision. It is a miracle they can drive a car safely with such obstructed eyesight. Yet the news has been filled with reports about the horrors and downright dastardly practices and unconscionable business relations which apparently have plagued Donald Trump over the years. We can only assume that previously law enforcement and business oversight and enforcement departments have suffered an equal measure of tunnel vision when it came to policing the business deals of Donald Trump. Of course the surprising item is the lack of law suits brought against Donald Trump if so many of his business dealings were actually as fraudulent as we have been led to believe. There was one business venture though which truly could have qualified as fraudulent had it actually made the guarantees or promises claimed by the media, and that was Trump University. Fortunately for Donald Trump the only actual guarantees given by Trump University were that one might be able to benefit and enrich themselves with the lessons and they would receive a diploma and a picture of them with the facsimile of Donald Trump. The picture with the cardboard Mr. Trump was only worth slightly less than the wisdom one might have gleaned from the lessons. So, there has seemingly been loads of the blind leading the blind in law enforcement around both Presidential candidates if the media reporting on one and the claims of ignoring direct evidence on the other are to be believed. This leads to one big question, which one is the least crooked and least seriously soaked in criminal behavior and thus the lesser choice to be President.

 

I know what you’re thinking, where am I going with this and that I sure started with some twisted and tortured lack of logic. Well, why should editorial commentary here be any less confusing and in the dark than the rest of the media? If you answer is because you have come to expect better, then thank you for your confidence and read on, it will hopefully be worth your time. The problem is that far too many of the politicians are crooked as a broken and twisted ancient oak tree with the varieties of corruption, insider trading (which is actually legal for members of Congress and the members of the Administration of the President), bought and paid for political hacks, politician turned lobbyist and other crimes of unimaginable complexity and criminal behavior obvious even to the most casual of observers which reach out from the rotting central core of the political tree in the ever outward reaching branches seeking new and more imaginable ways to deceive and steal. Are there some politicians who are clean, respectable and trusted to work for their electorate? Astonishingly, yes. Unfortunately they are also the politicians shunned by the opposition party and their own party and unfortunately cannot seem to get together on issues due to their different beliefs and political orientations. If only there were some means of getting the true representatives of the people to work to clean up the rest of the political quagmire, that would be simply grand. Unfortunately most of the truly honest representatives of the people fall into one of a few categories, socialists even bordering on communist, religious conservatives often referred to as the religious right, and the true believers of causes which are as varied as often separate be the narrowest of degrees yet still chasing mutually exclusive dreams as one can paint. There are likely more than a dozen of causes which come under the ecological umbrella from save the whales or the seal cubs to save the rain forests as well as stop acid rain who sometimes protest with the save the oceans and even save the polar bears who have been taking care of themselves quite well. Then there are those who want electric cars, hydrogen cell cars, universal transports which take everyone to their destinations, public transport such as busses, light rail or subways and those who want to ban all vehicles which run on petroleum even including aircraft and the rigs without which we would soon have less choices of food and other goods, but that is not their concern. There are some who desire making the United States a Christian based nation where Christianity would become the recognized religion of their state or even the nation. And then there are our favorites, the constitutionalists who simply desire to have the United States return to the limitations intended by the Founding Fathers.

 

Founding Fathers of the United States

 

Those chasing causes, dreams some call them, are probably the least harmful as they are easily predictable and can be clearly understood. The less than honest politicians are also predictable once their motivations and those who own their pocketbook are understood. There are those who have so many positing bribes, sorry, contributions and charitable donations, which work their way back to the politicians through nefarious and twisted paths making them not so obvious. Let us say that a politician or group of politicians receive contributions to their campaigns and to supportive political action committees (PACs) as well as donations to charities or other groups who also contribute to the election campaigns where all this cash finds its way back to the politicians and they simply promote a bill which provides funding for some aid package helping the poor or the sick in impoverished nations which in turn buy drugs or food using much of the aid from the United States from those who initially arranged the funding from the varied sources for their campaigns. The twisted paths and the indirect funding leads to crossing the eyes of any investigations such as there is nothing directly untoward making these actions prosecutable. There are thousands of scams which have been operating for more years than any care to admit. Ask historians or political studies professors and one can learn that these problems assisted in the fall of empires past and have predated writing. There are theories about what is the oldest profession and it very well may turn out it was politician and the first politician was the individual who convinced the leader of their clan that they needed a religion and they should be the priest or medicine man or any position which did not require brawn as much as brains. That politicians got to eat without having to hunt as hunting was dangerous and too often the hunting parties came back minus one or more members while priests or medicine men stayed at the camp near the fires and out of the rain.

 

We have come a far way since then and now we have entire echelons of politicians in layers upon layers doing all sorts of functions. But in modern society the politician is not the greatest menace, just the most efficient ones where the greatest concentration of money can be found. The menace are those faceless individuals who sit in offices and cubicles making up rules and regulations and even law in some instances when directed to flesh out legislation which is all too often loosely written and paints broad swipes leaving room for interpretations and that leads to mischief. There was a temporary position a number of years back which was referred to as the Regulations Czar whose lead individual was Cass Sunstein known officially as Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget. The position was directed to review laws and legislation from the last fifty years or so and define or formulate new regulations which could be enacted with a special emphasis to use these reviews to enact and formulate regulations supporting policies the Administration was having difficulty passing through Congress. How many thousands of additional regulations were discovered hiding in laws recent or ancient we probably will never discern. Things have gotten to a choking point with the numbers of regulations, requirements and other rules holding an equivalence of laws that the average citizen cannot be expected to even have knowledge of the extents and depth of what is considered illegal and can place one on the wrong side of the law in court. The sad truth is difficult to put one’s arms around but be it the United Statesor be it Briton or any nation in Europe or potentially the entire world, the reality is we all break laws as part of our normal everyday lives and the criminality of living increases by thousands of new laws and regulations annually. This is the real criminal output of politicians who are paid to pass laws which outright or through inferred regulations give those who can pay an advantage over the rest of the population. This is the crooked legacy which is almost as criminal as the money stolen from our pockets through taxes, fees or higher prices so that others can benefit from corrupt politicians. This is why elections matter and primary elections this year proved to be the surprising ones which mattered. In the United States the choice is between two political forces either of which will provide the media, and especially us if we choose, more to cover than they will know what to do with. One will have half the media screaming about the illegalities with the other half excusing it while the other will have half most of the media claiming they are completely lost as to what are the motivations of the actions from the White House and others will play the game of guess what’s up next. Either way we will have plenty of news we just as soon would rather tune out, but it will affect our lives and the effects will be anywhere from minor inconveniences to drastic enough to threaten the entire planet. The real problem is none of the candidates, including third party, have even an inkling about the state of the world and what needs be done to repair the most egregious of the difficulties or threats, and it will be some of the threat which will offer the greatest danger if not mitigated and mitigated right out of the gate. Many will claim that will simply cause more difficulty but indifference to the world of problems has worked so well that we’ll gladly risk actually addressing threats and problems over leading from so far behind you may as well not be there at all, which too often was the case, Benghazi anyone? Please America, choose well.

 

Beyond the Cusp